


best friends, etc.

by andchaos



Series: Blood Sisters [4]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Canon-Typical Homophobic Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Fem!Dennis, Fem!Mac, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderbend, Rule 63, mac continues to be oblivious and it makes me personally sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 11:44:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14260233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andchaos/pseuds/andchaos
Summary: They've been best friends for so long, Dennis always knew that one day they would cross the boundary between best friends and something more, and she has no idea what will happen when they finally do. Someday, something's got to give.This is what happens when it finally does.





	best friends, etc.

Dennis is thirty and she doesn’t like how Mac is acting. Mac is saying, “We’re lesbians – we’re supposed to know how to play softball!” and “Getting on the team and ruining their championship game is a great way to get back at the asshole who gave us a bad Yelp review,” and Dennis wants to ask, “How do you know? How do you know how to pick up a bat, why do you look like you’ve been waiting for this day your whole entire life?” but she doesn’t, because Mac will only avoid the answer. As long as they’re just pretending to be gay, Mac can use all the lesbian expertise she wants.

Instead, Dennis slips an arm around Mac’s waist. When the coaches give them a place on the team, Dennis shakes their hands enthusiastically and kisses Mac on her cheek. She pretends not to feel the imprint of her skin on her lips all day.

Mac wants her to start going to the gym with her, too.

“You’re out of shape!” Mac says, going around their apartment in circles on Sunday morning trying to find her only clean sports bra.

“Excuse me?” Dennis says – shouts, really, almost spilling her coffee all over her bathrobe. “Just because walking to church this morning is the most exercise you’ll get all week –”

“I’m totally ripped,” Mac says. She holds up one arm, flexing for good measure. Dennis, despite herself, is impressed. Mac continues, “See? I’m, like, butch.”

“Whatever,” says Dennis. She slouches back in her chair and goes back to her coffee and the paper. “I’m not coming to the fucking gym.”

“You need to get fit so you can be good on the team!” Mac insists. She comes closer, touching the side of Dennis’s face with light fingers. “Hm. Yep, you’re definitely getting pudgy there.”

Dennis holds up her phone to try and see her face in the reflection. “Really?”

“Oh, totally,” says Mac, nodding sanctimoniously.

“Well…I guess the gym couldn’t hurt. Getting fit is good for you anyway, right?”

“Oh yeah. We’re gonna have the strongest hearts in Philly,” Mac assures her. “Now get dressed. Did you steal my bra?”

“You’re two sizes up from me, dude, why would I steal your fucking bra?”

Mac shrugs. “’Cause you’re a dick.”

They bicker while they get dressed. They do it all the way to the gym, too.

Mac wants to go use the treadmills so her legs can get strong, but Dennis cajoles her into taking a spin class instead.

“You’re so doing Pilates with me after this, asshole,” Mac mutters as they climb onto two bikes side by side. “I hate biking.”

“That’s ‘cause you only do it once a year so it makes your pussy hurt, dude. Don’t be a lazy sack of shit and it won’t be so bad.”

Mac points a finger at her. “Pilates,” she says menacingly.

The instructor comes into the room before Dennis can make a jab back, so she just rolls her eyes and gets into position. She’s already been kicked out of just about every gym in the city, so she’s making a conscious effort not to fuck this up even though she already wants to tell the instructor that his legs look like toothpicks and how the hell is he going to beef up their thighs when his look like they were just chewed down to the bone.

Mac leans over toward her.

“Really?” she whispers. “ _This_ is the guy we’re supposed to let boss us around?”

Dennis snorts. “What a waste of money,” she agrees in an undertone. The woman beside them gives them a dirty look, and Dennis flips her off.

The instructor introduces himself as Bryan, and Dennis immediately decides it’s the worst name she’s ever heard. He puts on some shitty music that makes Dennis lean over to Mac and whisper, “This is legitimately going to make my ears bleed.”

“If your brain doesn’t explode from how stupid this is first,” says Mac.

“Okay,” Bryan calls, clapping his hands together. “Who’s ready to take down these miles?”

He tells them to start off on a low setting and they get started. Dennis looks over at Mac’s bike and scoffs.

“You’re already going at half resistance, dude,” she says.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m super strong and stuff.”

“You’re never going to be able to turn the heat all the way up on that. You have to pace yourself, you won’t be able to increase resistance later when he tells you to.”

“Maybe _you_ can’t handle this,” Mac says, her eyes sliding over Dennis’s body slowly before flicking back up to her face. She smirks. “But then again, I’m not a pussy.”

“I’m _not_ a pussy,” Dennis says indignantly.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Prove it, asshole.”

Eyes narrowed, Dennis presses the resistance button up until it’s as high as Mac’s. Mac glares right back at her and presses hers one number higher. Dennis does the same and starts pedaling faster than before. Her thighs are already starting to burn, but she’s not going to tell Mac that. Her face is carefully composed, too, because Mac is looking right at her every time that Dennis glances up from her mileage tracker to see if Mac’s catching up to her. She is.

“Ladies,” Bryan calls. “I’m thrilled to see you’re getting into the spinning spirit, but you should calm down a little. We’re working our way up there, don’t worry. But don’t tire yourselves out.”

Dennis and Mac ignore her.

Mac reaches out to try and turn down Dennis’s resistance and almost topples over in the process. Dennis swats at her wandering hands. Mac pushes her back.

“Hey – knock that off –”

“ _You_ knock it off, dude, I’m totally winning –”

“You’re cheating, Mac, knock it off!”

“Dennis!”

“ _Mac_!”

Mac takes her hands off the handlebars first to get at Dennis better. Dennis does the same when Mac lashes out at her, and they both fall off their bikes and onto the floor; it hurts a lot and Dennis is pretty sure she’s bleeding, but Mac is also pinning her to the floor and she’s focusing too hard on getting back on top.

“Ladies,” Bryan calls, “ladies!”

“Fuck you,” Dennis says five minutes later, when they’ve been reprimanded and escorted out to the sidewalk by security. “That was the last gym we were still allowed at in this area code.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” says Mac, rolling her eyes.

“I’m fucking serious. You’re an animal.”

“Hey! You were right there on the floor with me,” says Mac.

Dennis crosses her arms. “Shut up.”

They start walking; Dennis isn’t really sure where but Mac seems to have a destination in mind, taking the lead on turns and crossing the street so Dennis is often left turning around wondering where the hell she went, only to see her ponytail swinging as she wanders away.

After a couple of blocks Mac strips off her hoodie and ties it around her waist.

“It’s hot,” she says, shrugging, when Dennis look at her.

“You really want to walk around Philly with your tits out?” Dennis asks.

“I’m wearing a sports bra.”

Dennis rakes her eyes over the aforementioned clothing. “Yeah, barely.”

Mac doesn’t cover up; if anything, she juts her chest out further as though in direct defiance of Dennis’s warning. Dennis rolls her eyes.

“Whatever, man. Get attacked. See if I care.”

Mac twirls her ponytail around a couple of fingers so that her hair swirls and spins when she lets it go. Dennis watches, enchanted with how the sunlight skims off of it.

“God, having this much hair is such a pain in my ass,” Mac sighs, tugging her ponytail higher up on her head. Dennis startles and refocuses on her face. “Do you think I could pull off a pixie cut?”

Dennis studies her face for a long moment.

“I think so,” she says at last. “You would have to get the right shape for your face though. Otherwise it will just look kind of…dykey.”

Mac hums her agreement.

She leads them down a couple more streets before it becomes familiar. Still, Dennis lets her keep leading them until they get to the door of the burger joint they like to frequent. She jogs a couple steps ahead to grab the door, and Mac nods at her as she passes by.

They both order their regular – double patties soaked in every topping they can get – and sit at a booth near the window.

“I’m starving after that workout,” Mac says.

“We barely did anything, Mac,” she says, rolling her eyes. “But I could definitely carboload before we do anything for real. Should we jog home?”

“After this?” Mac points at her burger, which is dripping with grease and god knows what else. “Definitely.”

They fall into silence as they scarf down the first halves of their meal. As the carbs start to settle heavy in Dennis’s stomach, she leans back to pick at the rest of it instead.

“What do you wanna do tonight?” she asks after a while.

Mac looks up at her, her cheeks stuffed full of burger, unselfconscious and gluttonous. Dennis smiles and reaches forward to wipe some ketchup off her cheek.

“I dunno,” Mac says, swallowing her mouthful and wiping the back of her hand across her chin. She misses a lot of it. “Want to get drunk?”

“Well, that was a given,” says Dennis. She sticks her finger into her mouth to suck off the ketchup. “Hm. We could watch something. Play a drinking game to it.”

“I don’t want to do that shit,” says Mac. “We always just wind up chugging it anyway and forget to drink at the right parts.”

“Yeah.” Dennis frowns. After a moment, she snaps her fingers. “Oh, I know. We could play Mario Kart DUI.”

“Charlie had our console last.”

“Well we’ll steal it back from him, who gives a shit?”

“I think he broke it.”

“Shit.” She scowls. “I mean, I have Frank’s credit card. Want to hit Gamestop first?”

“Yeah. We should really upgrade our systems anyway. Playing on the N64 is so old-school. We’re not in college anymore.”

Dennis grins at her. They high-five and then finish their meals quickly, both equally eager to start drinking. They haven’t played DUI in forever.

They get the Wii and the game for it, since they might as well; armed with Frank’s deep pockets, Dennis throws in a couple of the steering wheels to attach to their controllers too, just because. The ride back to their apartment has an excited air about it, but they stop at Paddy’s first.

“Hey,” Dee says when they come in. She looks up from where she’s just sitting at the counter talking to Charlie, although they have a couple of empty shot glasses in front of them and Dennis gets the sense that they’re having a very similar night as she and Mac are about to. “I thought you guys were taking the day off.”

“We just came by to grab some beers,” Mac says, making a beeline for the bar. She’s thrown her sweatshirt back on. She grabs a couple of cases in her arms.

“Give me those,” Dennis says. “I’ll throw them in the back of the car. Can you get a few more?”

“You guys are gonna drink _four_ cases of beer?” Charlie asks incredulously.

“No, but we’re dry at home anyway. Might as well stock up while we can,” says Dennis, shrugging.

She shoulders open the door and goes to dump the cases in the back of her car. When she comes back in a few moments later, Mac is arguing about them drinking the good tequila and Charlie and Dee are giving her shit right back about how much of their beer stock she’s stealing.

“What are you doing with all that, anyway?” Dee asks. “Are you going to black out tonight? Is that what the plan is?”

“We’re playing Mario Kart DUI,” says Dennis. Mac passes her with the other two cases of beer, and Dennis pats her on the back as she goes.

“Oh, shit. Beerio Kart?” says Charlie.

“Why didn’t you invite us?” Dee demands.

“I think I broke your Nintendo, dude,” says Charlie.

“Because fuck you, Dee,” says Dennis, “and Charlie, we know. That’s why we took Frank’s card and bought ourselves a brand new Wii. Well, an old Wii. Whatever. The point is, we have the game.”

“Well, why can’t we play?”

“Dee, I wouldn’t let you within five feet of that system if you were the last Mario Kart partner on earth,” says Mac, reentering the bar.

“And Charlie, you’re sure as shit not getting it,” says Dennis. “You broke our last system.”

“Yeah,” says Mac, beaming. “Now come on, Dennis. Let’s go get trashed.”

“Well wait, that’s not fair—”

“Come on, you guys, just let me—”

They’re out the door before they can hear the rest of their protests. They grin at each other as they get into the car and Dennis revs the engine.

Mac sets up the system when they get back to their place, and Dennis goes to put the beer in the fridge. She leaves one case out in the living room so they can keep cracking one open between rounds without having to get up every time.

“Everything good to go?” Dennis asks, coming back into the living room and sitting down on the couch.

“Yep,” says Mac. “We should be ready to play. Here.”

She hands Dennis a controller. Dennis trades her back a beer and they clink them together before cracking them open.

“Okay,” says Mac once they’ve picked their characters and track, her finger hovering over the start button. “Are you ready?”

“Yep.” Dennis doesn’t look at her, eyes fixed on the TV screen, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Mac likes to cheat by trying to distract her and starting it when she’s not paying attention, but Dennis knows her too well to fall for that now. “Are _you_ ready to chug?”

“And kick your ass while I do it.”

“Then let’s go.”

Mac hits play.

There’s a few upsides to Mario Kart DUI: It’s fun as fuck, easy to play drunk, and a good way to release pent-up emotions by kicking each other’s asses on the track.

The only downside is that chugging a beer before crossing the finish line each time _hurts_ after a couple of rounds, her throat as well as her stomach. Although she _is_ getting drunk relatively quickly, so Dennis supposes that’s technically an upside too.

Mac wins the first tournament by one race and Dennis throws one of her empty cans at her. Mac laughs, too caught up in her victory to be mad as she swats it away from her face.

“Wanna play another one?” Mac asks.

“Obviously, dickbag.”

Dennis wins the second tournament, so they go for best two out of the three. By the time the third tournament comes around, they’re both eight beers deep and have to keep pausing the game to pee. Dennis takes her controller into the bathroom with her so Mac can’t unpause the game while she’s gone – she used to do that all the time when their controllers had wires.

They’re vicious when they start up again, elbowing each other to get them to fall off the edge, shouting and shoving when they lose.

“Fuck yeah!” Mac shouts, throwing her controller down hard and standing when she finishes the last race, a hair’s breadth before Dennis. “Fuck you, Dennis! I am the _best_!”

“Fuck _you_!” Dennis shouts, grinning even as she shoves Mac hard in the shoulder.

Mac, more than slightly inebriated, stumbles a few steps and falls to the ground. While Dennis is laughing, Mac grabs her ankle and drags her down too, and they start to tussle there on the floor; it’s a little funny because the Mario theme music is still playing in the background, and after a few minutes they give up because they’re both laughing too hard.

“Fuck, dude.” Dennis sits up and wipes her hand across her cheek; she winces. “Ow, what is that?”

“Oh. Rugburn, man.” Mac reaches out and brushes her finger against the thinly sliced away skin. Dennis shoves her arm away. “Sorry.”

“Sorry about biting you.”

Mac shakes the sleeve of her sweatshirt down over her arm so the bite mark is covered up.

“I’m gonna heat up some pizza rolls,” says Mac, getting to her feet. “You hungry?”

“ _Ooh_ , yes. I could go for some pizza rolls,” says Dennis. She grabs Mac’s hand when she offers it out, and Mac pulls her up to her feet. They stumble a bit with the force of it, and then laugh and cling to each other as they head into the kitchen.

Mac gets the rolls out of the freezer while Dennis grabs a baking pan and some parchment paper to cover it with. Mac dumps half the bag of pizza rolls out onto the tray and licks her fingers clean. Dennis shoves it into the oven and turns it on.

Mac is sitting at the table when she turns around, her fingers steepled and looking deep in thought. When Dennis pulls out the chair next to her, though, Mac looks up at her and smiles.

“What’s got you looking all thoughtful and shit?” Dennis asks.

Mac shakes her head. “Just trying to hold down my beer,” she says ruefully, and Dennis laughs.

“Shut up,” Dennis says, now grinning too.

“Actually,” says Mac after a pause, “I’m just thinking about a date I have tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah?” Dennis asks. “With who?”

“Some guy I met at the coffee shop the other day,” says Mac. “He wants to go see Superbad with me.”

“Oh shit, the commercials for that make it look so good. Wish I could come.”

“Yeah, I’m excited,” Mac says.

Still, she doesn’t _look_ overly thrilled, sitting still at the kitchen table, the smile sliding off her face as quickly as it came. Dennis looks away and back toward the living room, where the sounds of the Wii game are still playing. Dennis gets up to go shut it off, and the TV as well.

When she gets back, Mac’s chair seems closer than before. She’s looking away, studying the wall, but Dennis doesn’t stop looking at her. Finally Mac looks back at her, and then neither of them look away and they’re just sitting close, eyes locked. Dennis can feel her face heating infinitesimally.

Mac is sitting close to her. Dennis realizes the arm she’s thrown over the back of Mac’s chair has betrayed her, and she’s playing with a piece of her hair that’s fallen out of her ponytail. She swallows and stops; Mac turns to look at her. She doesn’t ask anything, but she says it with her eyes.

Dennis’s heart is in her throat. She reaches up on some animal instinct and, hesitating only for a second, takes Mac’s cheek in her palm. Mac’s eyes flutter shut and then open again; Dennis rubs her thumb against the skin beneath it.

Mac swallows visibly, but she doesn’t move away. Dennis inches her face closer. Her thoughts should be racing, but the only thing she can think is that it’s strange how empty her mind feels right now. Almost like white noise has erased everything from inside it and anchored her here, in this moment.

“I,” Mac says. She shuts her mouth and doesn’t say anything more.

Dennis stops with their lips a sliver apart. She could sit back and they could pretend this never happened. They can still pretend this never happened.

She feels Mac’s hand, hesitant and shaking, touch her knee. Their eyes lock for a moment. Mac closes hers.

Dennis leans in the last of the distant and kisses her, a light press of their mouths together. It only lasts a few seconds before she pulls away.

She looks at Mac, studying her. Her breathing is infinitesimally heightened, but otherwise she looks the same – the blush a little higher on her cheeks, maybe, her shoulders tenser, but still the same Mac that Dennis has always known.

And Mac still doesn’t move. She’s just sitting there, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. Dennis almost pulls away – but then she feels Mac’s hand climbing up her thigh. It stops about halfway up, but that’s enough for Dennis – she pulls Mac back in on a gasp.

Their lips move together more fiercely now. Mac clutches at Dennis’s arm like she’s going to sink her nails in and never let her move, or else she had better leave her arm where she sits. Dennis grabs at the back of her neck, tangles her fingers in Mac’s hair. She shifts closer in her chair and Mac grasps tightly at her waist, dragging her forward.

Mac kisses blindly down Dennis’s cheek and then to her neck, where she wastes no time in biting down meaningfully. Dennis curls her hands around Mac’s shoulders and just holds on, but in a second Mac presses their mouths back together. Dennis licks in between Mac’s teeth and feels her tongue press against hers, strong and sure.

Mac sits back and Dennis is over her in a second, her hand back on the back of her chair, her legs opening to accommodate Mac’s. When Dennis kisses her again, Mac pulls on her waist so that she sits down hard in Mac’s lap. Dennis presses her thumb down into Mac’s chin so she opens her mouth wider, and then smooths her fingers over her cheek, curling them in behind her ear and kissing her and kissing her.

Mac wraps her arms around Dennis waist, keeping her pressed tightly against her body. Their chests are right up against each other, and even through the four layers of their shirts and their bras, Dennis can still feel her like a live wire, shocking her to the core.

The oven beeps – a loud, long sound. They break apart with a jolt, Mac’s teeth barely missing Dennis’s lower lip. Dennis slides off Mac’s lap and Mac, not looking at her, goes to pull on some oven mitts. Dennis sits down in her vacated chair and props her head up in her hands.

She just sits there staring at the tabletop until, in her periphery, she sees Mac reappear. She sets a plate of pizza rolls down on the table and sits down in the unoccupied chair. Dennis finally looks up.

“I’m sorry,” Dennis says. “That wasn’t—I don’t know.”

Mac doesn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, but it feels like several hours. She seems to be looking directly underneath Dennis’s eye level. Finally she asks, her voice low, “Why now?”

“What?”

“I mean, why now? Why today?”

Dennis blinks at her. “Why not today?”

“Just…what changed?”

Dennis swallows. Now _she’s_ the one who can’t look at _Mac_ suddenly, and she studies the cooling pizza rolls instead. She wonders if they’re still too hot to eat, and if she shouldn’t suck it up and bear it anyway.

“I guess…Today is different because…I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

Dennis shrugs one shoulder. She peeks back up at Mac, who is looking at her with wide eyes. Her gaze looks dead and Dennis has no idea what she’s thinking.

Dennis reaches out for a pizza roll. It’s still hot, and she gags on it. Mac ignores this and starts to eat, too.

“I’m not gay,” Mac says, her voice still pitched so quiet it’s almost inaudible.

Dennis watches her for a long time. Then she sighs and looks back down at the table.

“I know,” she says. She looks up again. “And we’re just drunk. I don’t want to do this when we’re drunk.”

Mac swallows. “What does that…When _do_ you want to do this?”

Dennis blinks at her. Then she reaches for another pizza roll and just starts eating. After a moment, Mac resumes eating them too. They finish the rest of their dinner in silence.

When they get up, Mac whispers a quiet goodnight and starts toward her room. Dennis reaches out and grabs her wrist. Mac pauses and looks at her.

Dennis asks, “Want to come to bed with me?”

Mac looks at her for a long moment. Then she nods. Dennis slides her hand down to Mac’s and they fit their palms together as they make their way toward Dennis’s room instead.

Dennis changes into pajamas as Mac slides out of her sweatshirt and ponytail and slips under Dennis’s covers. Dennis strips out of her sports bra and gym shorts and into a cotton shirt, then burrows under the blankets as well. Sleepily, maybe drunkenly, Mac reaches out for her. Dennis curls closer so that the curve of her back fits up snugly against Mac’s chest.

This is just like how they used to share beds during sleepovers in high school, Dennis thinks. She doesn’t know why, then, her heart is beating so much more calmly now than it ever did before.

 

The morning sunlight arches in through the window, soaking the blankets pooled around Dennis’s back in warmth. She turns away from the light and bumps up against a solid chest – and a scent she knows all too well.

Dennis blinks awake to find Mac flat on her back, snoring away at the ceiling. Her mouth hangs open, and her arm is thrown out over the side of the bed. Dennis rolls her eyes and pats Mac’s hip affectionately; this, too, she knows like the back of her hand.

She gets up and heads into the bathroom. She can feel last night’s beers and half-workout sticking to her skin like a thin sheen of sweat, and feels disgusting. She really needs a shower.

She strips down to nothing while she waits for the water to heat up. She finds a good playlist on her iPod and balances it on the sink to play, then steps into the tub.

The water’s hot, almost too hot, beating down on her skin when she steps under the spray. Her eyes are closed, face tipped back toward the water, so she doesn’t hear the bathroom door open until it closes. Still, she doesn’t mind; Mac’s probably just using the toilet. They share space like this all the time.

There’s rustling from behind the curtain, but Dennis is too busy massaging shampoo into her hair to pay much attention to it. She’s rinsing it out when she hears the curtain pull back, and then she opens her eyes and Mac is just standing there, bare naked too, staring at her.

Dennis swallows.

“Can I come in?” Mac asks.

Her voice is hoarse and low, so Dennis can’t read the tone too well. She nods anyway.

Mac steps into the shower and pulls the curtain back around them. She’s probably just protecting their floor from water damage, but something about it feels like she’s closing them off from the world anyway. They’re in their own little bubble of steam and heat, just the two of them and nothing else in the entire universe. Mac is standing so close to her that Dennis could count the eyelashes sticking to her cheeks.

“We’re not drunk,” Mac says, matter-of-factly.

Dennis nods dumbly.

When she continues to say nothing, Mac prompts, “Is today still different?”

After a moment, Dennis nods again.

Mac reaches out, her hands sliding over Dennis’s jaw and cheeks, and kisses her hard. Dennis slides her own over Mac’s waist to steady herself as she stumbles back under the water. It pours down over them both as they kiss, lips and tongues sliding together. Dennis tilts her head, capturing Mac’s mouth with hers over and over. She feels like she’s drowning and it’s not just from the water pouring down on them, making it difficult to breathe.

Dennis presses Mac back by her hips and twists them so that Mac’s back hits the wall. Mac rakes her nails down Dennis’s spine, her head arching back and her legs falling open. Dennis presses into the space she makes, opening her mouth up against Mac’s neck and kissing languidly across the skin. Oddly, she tastes almost like nothing, but Dennis still notices the hint of that Mac-ness that lingers beneath the water. Dennis anchors Mac’s chin in between two fingers and presses her tongue back next to hers.

Mac’s hands slide down to grasp Dennis’s ass instead, hauling her in so close that it’s easy to roll their hips together. Dennis slides one of her legs over Mac’s so their thighs are slotted together instead of Dennis being in between both hers, and this time when she arches in toward her, they both moan at the sensation of relief that comes between their legs.

Dennis sucks on Mac’s lower lip, then bites down gently. Mac slides one hand up Dennis’s body to roll one of her breasts in her hand, and Dennis releases her lip to groan out her name into the air.

It should be startling, should jolt them back to reality. Instead Mac moves to palm at her other breast and licks swiftly across Dennis’s collarbone, then attaches her mouth there and starts to suck a hickey into her skin. Dennis tangles her fingers in Mac’s hair, matted with wetness, and tugs until Mac is satisfied with the mark and lets her go.

Dennis uses the grip on her hair to guide their mouths back together, and Dennis slides her hand down between them to get between Mac’s legs. Mac backs her hips up enough to give Dennis room to fit her hand, and Dennis flicks her fingers experimentally against Mac’s clit. She starts panting fast; Dennis pauses to reach over for the soap to better slick her fingers before pressing them back inside her.

They’re hardly kissing so much as Mac is panting against her mouth while she fingers her, almost lazily; it’s not going to be fast enough to get Mac off, but it should get her nice and wet for whatever Dennis wants to do to her after.

Mac is groaning and sighing loudly, audible even over the shower. Her hands have lost their rhythm but not their purpose, and she hasn’t stopped rolling Dennis’s tits in her palms, fingers flicking over her nipples and hardening them until her breath catches too. Dennis changes her mind and starts moving her fingers faster. They kiss every now and again, just short passes of their lips together before they both go back to focusing on what their hands are doing.

Mac comes in a matter of minutes of this, her toes curling on the porcelain, her mouth open in a wordless cry. Dennis flicks her tongue out against the edge of her jaw and keeps fingering her through it, until she stops rocking her hips and slowly retracts her nails from Dennis’s arms.

They both pause, faces an inch apart, breathing hard – sucking in each other’s air and the steam from the water. Mac reaches out to turn the heat down, and Dennis turns to get more soap. She slowly washes the sweat off Mac’s body while Mac begins to wash her hair. Mac soaps her down while Dennis conditions. They make out lazily while they wait for the conditioner to set in so they can rinse.

They towel off after. Their eyes meet every now and again, but they don’t say anything. It’s not an uncomfortable silence; the little smile on Mac’s face whenever Dennis catches her eye is telling enough to let her know _that_.

The rush of fresh air when they open the door into Dennis’s bedroom is nerve-wracking, like cold water dumped on a fantasy. Well, not completely – the fact that it hardens her nipples again combined with the sly look Mac is shooting her tells her that it’s not the end of things.

Dennis towels off her hair and throws it to the ground. She turns around to see Mac reaching to pull her panties back on. Before she can step both feet into them, Dennis grabs her arm and spins her around.

“Wha—?”

She doesn’t get to finish the sentence before Dennis kisses her again, slow and open-mouthed. Mac quickly relaxes into it, running her knuckles gently over Dennis’s sides and her hips. She thumbs at her cheek and Dennis flinches. They look at each other and start laughing.

“Sorry,” Mac says. She touches just under the scrape that’s still on Dennis’s cheek from the rug burn last night.

Dennis traces the reddened bite mark on Mac’s arm. “Sorry,” she echoes.

They grin at each other. Dennis is pretty sure they pull each other back in at the same time; they twist and push and fall onto her mattress together, both still a little damp from the shower, both too busy pulling at each other’s arms and hips and thighs to care.

Mac pushes down on Dennis’s shoulders so that she’s flat on her back. Momentarily she feels knocked breathless, staring wide-eyed at Mac’s bright smile and brighter eyes looming above her, her damp hair falling all around them like a curtain.

Mac leans down and kisses her gently. Dennis arches up into her, wrapping her arms around Mac’s back and bringing her down so they’re flush against each other. Incrementally, Mac lightens their kiss and presses her down at the same time, until Dennis’s back is against the mattress again and Mac is above her, though not far.

Mac kisses her chest, a couple places on her stomach, and then further down – she lifts one of Dennis’s thighs and presses her lips there. Dennis shivers, and she feels Mac’s smile against her skin before she bites down softly. Dennis sighs. Mac releases her leg and spreads her cunt open with her fingers instead. Deliberately, almost lovingly, Mac laves her tongue across the whole of her. Swiftly she switches to shorter, faster strokes up against her clit. Dennis sighs out toward the ceiling and reaches down to mess her fingers through Mac’s hair. One of Mac’s hands reaches up, searching – Dennis entwines their fingers and relaxes back into the sheets.

With the free hand, Mac presses a finger inside her and curls it up against that spot inside her that’s rougher than the rest, so that Dennis thinks Mac might know her better than she knows herself. Even this, she knows.

Dennis groans, her face twisting tighter together. Mac’s tongue speeds up against her clit, and she slides another finger in beside the first, working those faster too. Dennis’s hand clamps down on Mac’s, the other twisting in the blankets.

“Right there,” she breathes, cants her hips towards Mac’s face and hand, “right there —”

Mac’s tongue gets more precise. Dennis’s back bows and she reaches down to thread her fingers in Mac’s hair, tangling it helplessly beyond how it already looks from coming out of the shower, wet and unbrushed and already knotted.

“Mac,” Dennis breathes, her eyelids flickering. “God, Mac. Baby, that’s good, that’s so good –”

Mac stops only to breathe, and even then she still keeps kissing across Dennis’s thighs and whispering all the things she wants to do to her.

“I can’t wait until I get you undone,” Mac whispers. “I’ve seen how you look, you know. I’m gonna lay you out and fuck you until you scream sometime, get you shaking – gonna find a strap on and —”

Dennis groans, grinding down on Mac’s fingers inside her. The words mix with the vision she has of Mac coming undone in the shower, and she breathes in shallowly, struggling to get enough air and knowing she’ll never have enough, for this.

“Just like that, just that fast – ”

“Is that good?” Mac asks, looking up at her. Her chin is shiny and her lips are wet and Dennis can’t stop looking at her. “Just that speed, right there?”

Dennis grips her hair tighter. “Fuck, yes.”

Mac goes back in, harder and faster until Dennis grinds up into her mouth and comes on a long groan, rocking up on Mac again and again until she finally breathes out and collapses back onto the mattress. She whispers, “That’s fine – that’s good,” and Mac kisses at the inside of her thigh, then onto her stomach, and up and up until she’s crawled all the way up Dennis’s body and they kiss, long and slow. Dennis can taste herself on Mac’s tongue and she licks farther into Mac’s mouth, toward that very thing; it’s a reminder of what they’ve done. At the same time, she wraps her arm around Mac’s lower back and brings her in closer. Mac rocks in toward her immediately, and Dennis can feel her everywhere; she cups one of her tits in her hand rubs her nipple with her thumb, in small, gentle circles. Mac gasps softly against her mouth.

Dennis reaches down between them and presses two fingers back inside her. Mac is still wet and open from before, and when Dennis fingers her in earnest, she quickly starts biting down to this side of painful on her neck, gasping her name out in aborted moans. She comes again soon after, rocking her hips against Dennis’s hand and pressing her mouth messily against Dennis’s own.

Mac collapses back on her side of the bed. Dennis looks over at her and watches her watch the ceiling for a long time. She feels quieter inside than she has in a good, long while.

For a few minutes they lie there together and just breathe. The rhythms of their chest line up, Dennis realizes at some point – they’re breathing in sync. It makes sense, she thinks; everything they’ve ever done has matched up perfectly, two crooked puzzle pieces that the factory fucked up, that still slide together just right like they’re the only pieces in their own, private game. Together, they make their own perfect picture.

Dennis breathes out. She rolls toward Mac and slides their legs together, and Mac obligingly wraps her arm around Dennis’s back and nestles her nose into her hair. Dennis listens and feels while their breathing slows down.

“Hey, Den?” Mac says, quietly, once their lungs have regained their rhythm and Dennis is tracing aimless shapes into Mac’s stomach.

Dennis presses her lips to Mac’s chest. She looks up at her. “Hmm?”

Mac’s arms tighten around her, and she starts to rock them back and forth slowly.

“That was good,” she says after a long few beats. “Too good not to do again.”

Dennis says nothing; she knows Mac doesn’t want to hear any of it. Instead, she just says, “Yeah, we should,” and kisses Mac’s cheek and gets up to get dressed, and she hides her little smile with a turned back and her face tucked into the collar of her shirt, and she lets it go.

 

Things don’t change, really. They don’t kiss in public, or even that much when they’re alone. Sometimes they get really fucking drunk and end up bent over the desk in the back office, or messily pulling aside each other’s shirts and down each other’s pants on their living room couch. Mostly they don’t do anything. They never, ever talk about it.

Dennis has her arm linked through Mac’s as they walk down the street. It’s been a couple weeks of this new thing between them, but this hasn’t changed. Mac is squinting into shops they pass and, every now and again, pointing out a pair of shoes or a tacky shirt she wants to come back later and buy once their paychecks come in on Friday.

They pass another store, and Mac sighs. Dennis tunes back into their largely one-sided conversation in time to hear Mac say, “You know, I think maybe I won’t get my hair cut after all.”

Dennis watches Mac tuck a strand of it behind her ear.

“Why? You complain about it all the time, dude. Last time I checked, you were pretty sure it was about to give you heat stroke and kill you.”

Mac shrugs. “I don’t know, I think you were right. It would make me look, you know. Gay.”

“So?”

Mac stares at her. “Dude. So? So I’m not gay, obviously. And I just don’t want chicks to like, hit on me and stuff. So weird, right? It would just really go against what I’m going for.”

Dennis narrows her eyes. The inside of her mouth tastes suddenly sour.

“And what _are_ you ‘going for,’ exactly?”

“Uh, picking up hot dudes and slamming ass, Den. Obviously.” Mac rolls her eyes.

Dennis frowns at her. Mac raises her eyebrows back, expression wiped clean of any other emotion, even when Dennis squints. Finally Dennis sighs, shakes her head. She extricates her hand from the inside of Mac’s arm.

“You’re right,” she says. Mac blinks at her. Before she can stop herself, Dennis says, “You’d look really gay with that haircut, Mac. And you wouldn’t want that, right? I mean, what if people thought you _were_ munching rug. Right?”

Mac blinks at her. “Uh…yeah, right.”

“What then Mac, you know?” Dennis can’t help pressing. She pinches the inside of her elbow and it doesn’t help. “What then?”

“What…what?”

“What would you do,” Dennis asks. She pulls them to a stop and looks Mac dead in the eye. Mac looks fucking terrified. Dennis presses on, “What would you do? If people knew you ate pussy? And _liked_ it?”

Mac swallows. She manages to turn bright red in a matter of seconds and she tucks her hands under her armpits, curving in on herself. Dennis wants to spit on her; she settles for doing it on the sidewalk instead. It doesn’t make her feel any better.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Mac says finally, gaze cast somewhere in the region of Dennis’s shoes.

Dennis scoffs. Mac doesn’t look up, and after a long moment, Dennis sighs instead. Mac catches her eye; she seems to judge that anything scary that might have been there has since left Dennis’s attention, and she looks at her much more directly.

“I don’t mean anything, Mac,” Dennis says. She pulls Mac’s arm until Mac uncrosses them and grasps at the inside of Dennis’s elbow with her hand, and she drags them into starting to walk again. “I don’t mean a goddamn thing.”

Mac says nothing. Dennis falls silent, too.

She doesn’t know what this means. She doesn’t know what any of this means.

But later, when she presses Mac’s back up against the door to the women’s bathroom and Mac presses her hand down into Dennis’s shorts, she thinks that it’s a sick kind of victory. And even a sick victory is better than a loss, at least when it comes to the two of them.

She kisses Mac as hard as she can and just hopes that she’s dead before she sees the day that Mac gets spooked and leaves for good. Until then, there’s always tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks y'all for reading :)
> 
> i'm still [lesbianfreyja on tumblr xo](http://lesbianfreyja.tumblr.com/post/172760079060)


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